DVD Screamers, Vol. 13

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Ghosts, a giant squid, and Gary Oldman await you this week.

By Brandon Ciampaglia

You scream. We scream. We all scream for IGN's DVD Screamers, a weekly column that looks at and reviews the latest horror DVD releases. Regardless of how good or atrocious the quality of each film might be, we will suck it up and bring to you our critiques of multiple discs. In doing so, we hope to provide you with the easiest means of knowing which flicks belong in your collection and which ones deserve to be used as target practice.

THE BACKWOODS

In the summer of 1978, in Northern Spain, two couples (one of the husbands being Gary Oldman) have decided to escape the hustle and bustle of city life and head for remote vacation house in the woods. Once settled, the men decide to head out into the woods and do a bit of hunting. As they do, they come across an abandoned home in the middle of the forest. Fueled by curiosity, one of the men (Oldman) decides to investigate and finds a young deformed girl chained inside one of the rooms. As the men carry the little girl back their house and clean her up, they quickly make plans to take her to the local authorities. The only problem is, some of the locals have showed up – with shotguns – looking for the girl. The confrontation has begun.

What makes The Backwoods such a good film is its realistic nature. There is neither a lot of violence nor spooky scares here. This is a dramatic thriller that focuses on relationships, love, death and how we change to adapt to threatening situations. At one point, during a rape sequence, the movie enters the realm of Sam Peckinpah and becomes an almost Straw Dogs-like experience. It definitely adds an unnerving tension and even more realism to the film, which is certainly not a bad thing. Helping to make this all possible are some really strong performances, the best of all coming from the great Gary Oldman. The man never fails to deliver the goods and he is at the top of his game in this flick.

The little girl character is the only aspect of the picture that probably could have been altered. There was really no need to make her deformed. The story would have been just as engrossing had the girl been normal. Be that as it may, this is still a very good film that will captivate audiences who enjoy their thrillers with a heavy helping of drama.

The look of the film is fairly good, with the vibrant colors of nature working very well alongside the dark subject matter. Both skin tones and black levels appear to have been finely handled. There is some grain, however, but that is not the biggest problem to be had with this anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) transfer. There are a handful of moments when the image gets a bit pixilated and unfocused. This usually happens when the camera moves around a lot. This problem does pass, but it can be annoying. The Dolby Digital 5.1, on the other hand, is free of problems and does a nice job of presenting the great ambiance of the woods, which is where the film primarily takes place. From birds chirping to the sound of rain, it all sounds really good.

Sadly, this single disc release is bare bones; there are zero extras here. It would have been really nice to get to see some interviews with Oldman or find out more about how the film came to be and check out some behind-the-scenes footage. Alas, we don't get that luxury and just have to make do with the film, itself.

Movie: 7/10 Audio/Video: 7/10 Extras: 0/10 Overall: 6/10

EYE OF THE BEAST

NORA scientist Dan Leland (James Van Der Beek) has just been assigned to do some research at a small fishing village. As he makes an attempt to enjoy his stay and flirt the attractive fishery officer for the town, he begins to hear stories of a killer sea creature that has been terrorizing the town for some time. Not believing what he hears, Dan does his own investigation after body parts begin to turn up and he quickly learns – as does the rest of the village – that the stories are true. It's now up to Van Der Beek (err, Dan) to use his almighty oceanographic skills to kill the beast before more victims become fish food.

Well, this is going to be short and to the point: "Thar she blows!" Now here we have a movi-- oh, we almost said it. Here we have a "disaster" of a project that is just terrible from beginning to end. As soon as the very first giant sea monster attack happens, we know exactly how the rest of the film goes and, to that end, we are not disappointed. The acting, the story, the visual effects – all of it is horrendous and shoddily handled. Just when you thought James Van Der Beek's career couldn't get any worse, this comes along and all but buries it. Like so many of his recent projects, his performance is incredibly weak. Be that as it may, the REALLY bad performances belong to those who have to act out being attacked by a long, makeshift tentacle. Have you ever seen Tim Burton's Ed Wood? Remember the sequence where Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) has to act out being attacked by a giant squid? That's what you get here, but a lot more of it. Eye of the Beast is just good old-fashioned crap cinema.

Both the audio and video presentations are good, but not great. The widescreen is decent enough with the colors looking sharp and black levels remaining strong throughout. There is a boatload of grain, though, that hurts the overall look. Then again, the look of this film was hurting to being with. As for the Dolby Digital, it, too, isn't impressive and is handled without much care. At least we can hear what is going on clearly enough. Then again, why would you want to?